Toto Wolff on George Russell’s penalty bonanza: “Clearly our mistake”

Mercedes team boss shoulders blame as penalties ruin title contender Russell’s Monaco race

Mercedes Formula 1 team principal Toto Wolff has taken responsibility for the pitstop blunder that led to a drive-through penalty for George Russell at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Russell experienced a dismal weekend in the principality, where he took sixth on the grid after being soundly beaten by team-mate Kimi Antonelli in all three qualifying segments.

The Briton gained a position at the start as Max Verstappen retired but got stuck behind Isack Hadjar, whose Red Bull car was experiencing driveability issues.

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Russell consequently was 49 seconds down on race leader Antonelli when he pitted on lap 31 in a bid to undercut Hadjar, but he was one of five drivers who controversially breached the pitlane speed limit and copped a five-second penalty.

“I'm not quite sure what the reason was for the penalty and for the many other penalties, whether it's cutting [pitlane entry] and then obviously the pitlane time is too quick, because there will have been a dozen pitlane speeding incidents,” Wolff commented slightly hyperbolically – half a dozen would be more accurate.

George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

The undercut attempt was successful, but when Russell pitted again under safety car conditions following Lance Stroll’s crash, the Mercedes mechanics didn’t serve the penalty.

“Clearly our mistake,” Wolff admitted. “We need to look at our communication, whether we actually expected him to come in, because I think what I remember is about staying out and not coming in. But nevertheless, you've got to be on it to hold him, and we didn't.”

Russell was consequently given a drive-through penalty. The race happened to be red-flagged when Charles Leclerc crashed at the same Antony Noghes corner as Stroll on the safety car restart, so Russell had to serve the drive-through after the second standing start – where he jumped Hadjar for third.

The Mercedes driver therefore tumbled down to 14th in the order, though he was bumped up to 12th in the final classification, courtesy of post-race penalties for Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.

Asked to explain the pitstop and penalty discombobulation at Mercedes, Russell said: “I got the drive-through because there was a lot of confusion last minute. I was meant to be staying on track, but then the FIA pulled the cars through pitlane.

George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: EYE4images / NurPhoto via Getty Images

“I was asking the team, ‘Am I stopping for tyres or not?’; I didn't get an answer, but I saw my set of tyres there. Everything just happened too quick and I guess the mechanic didn't get the message that they had to leave the car for five seconds.

“Then I was on the radio saying I'm willing to serve the penalty in the next lap, because I had a 20-second gap to Gasly behind me. But the rules say we didn't serve the penalty correctly… and the punishment is a drive-through. With the software glitch, I probably gained one-tenth of a second in the whole pitlane and lost 13 positions, so…”

Russell’s second consecutive non-scoring Sunday means his deficit to Antonelli in the title race has ballooned from 18 to 68 points in a couple of weeks, though at least 16 grands prix remain this season.

Additional reporting by Filip Cleeren